David Smith

David Smith, PE, CFM, BC.WRE, leads WEST’s San Diego office and has over 27 years’ experience in water resources engineering. He specializes in hydrology and hydraulics modeling, unsteady flow modeling, FEMA letters of map change, sediment transport modeling, and bridge scour evaluations. Mr. Smith recently completed a hydrologic and hydraulic evaluation for the Petaluma River and tributaries in the City of Petaluma using the XP-Storm unsteady model and several other projects in the City including Denman Terracing, Capri Creek Terracing, Sid Commons Development, Corona Subdivision, and Deer Creek Development.

Mr. Smith’s FEMA project experience includes several detailed modeling studies for Orange County, California, and numerous FEMA studies and map revisions (primarily LOMR, CLOMR, and LOMR-F) in California and Arizona; including a LOMR package for the LACDA project, which included evaluations of the Los Angeles River and Compton Creek. Recent FEMA studies in California include a LOMR for Murrieta Creek in Riverside County, a LOMR for Eagle Canyon Creek in Corona, and a LOMR-F for the Perris Storm Drain (tributary to San Jacinto River) in Perris. Mr. Smith’s hydrology and hydraulics experience includes a comprehensive hydrology, hydraulics, and sediment yield evaluation for three streams at Camp Pendleton for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Los Angeles District. He has also conducted hydrologic, hydraulic, and floodplain mapping studies for local government agencies, developers, and the USACE. Mr. Smith has completed more than 12 consecutive delivery orders for hydrologic and hydraulic studies for the USACE Memphis and Omaha Districts.

Mr. Smith assisted with DAMBRK modeling and inundation mapping for the San Vicente Dam and Olivenhain Dam, in San Diego, California. He also used unsteady HEC-RAS to evaluate a dambreak scenario and inundation mapping for the Black Mountain reservoir in San Diego.

Mr. Smith’s riverine sediment transport modeling experience includes debris basin removal evaluations of six streams in Ventura County, Temecula Creek below Vail Lake, and the Highway 90 Blockage project; and the evaluation of the Highway 90 Bridge on the St. Francis River in Drag Over, Missouri. Mr. Smith played a key role in sediment transport projects including the Tres Rios Sediment Transport Study in Phoenix, Arizona; the Calleguas Creek Sediment Transport Analysis in Ventura, California; and a meander restoration project for the USACE, Memphis District. Mr. Smith’s erosion protection experience includes the design of spillways and drop structures; bridge, toe, and pipeline scour calculations; and riprap design. Mr. Smith has also participated in evaluating bridge scour for the Arizona, Oregon, and Washington Departments of Transportation; private development projects in Southern California; and the Palm Canyon Wash Stability Assessment.

Before joining WEST, Mr. Smith worked for a large water and wastewater planning and design firm, where he was the firm’s sewer modeling expert in unsteady flow modeling and was involved in three major Sewer Master Plans (National City, Chula Vista, Encinitas). Mr. Smith also played a key role with the Chula Vista Drainage Master Plan and water distribution system modeling using H2Onet.